Comet Tempel-Tuttle and the Leonid meteor swarm
Abstract
The orbital elements of the Comet Tempel-Tuttle were calculated for the period 1833-1966 to investigate the contributions of particles ejected from the Comet and the Leonid meteor swarm. The meteors are assumed to be emitted from the Comet in all directions as the meteor reaches perihelion. Account is taken of the subsequent perturbations of the orbital elements of the meteors due to encounters with the gravitational field of the giant planets. The probabilities that the swarms will then encounter the earth are then calculated in terms of the distance between the orbits of the earth and meteors at the node, the minimum distance between the orbits, the times of passage of the earth and the swarm through the nodes, and the radiants and geocentric velocities. The calculations are asserted to be accurate to within 0.01 arcmin/day and a distance of 0.0001 AU. The calculations project intense Leonid meteor streams in the years 1999-2002, when cometary material from the 19th century will contribute to the swarm.
- Publication:
-
Astronomicheskii Vestnik
- Pub Date:
- October 1985
- Bibcode:
- 1985AVest..19..144K
- Keywords:
-
- Comet Nuclei;
- Leonid Meteoroids;
- Orbital Elements;
- Planetary Gravitation;
- Equations Of Motion;
- Giacobini-Zinner Comet;
- Mathematical Models;
- Perihelions;
- Astronomy